Haggai 2:6-9
The Latter Glory of This House
6For this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land.
7I will shake all the nations, and they will come with all their treasures, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of Hosts.
8The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine, declares the LORD of Hosts.
9The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former, says the LORD of Hosts. And in this place I will provide peace, declares the LORD of Hosts.”
Berean Standard Bible
This comes to people who have just been asked how the house looks to them now. What comes next is not about the foundation.
Once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land.
It is an enormous thing to say to the group he is saying it to. He goes on to say he will shake the nations as well, that they will come in carrying their treasures, and that he will fill this house with glory. Not a better one later. Not a replacement once conditions improve and the money is easier. The house they can see from where they are standing.
The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine, declares the LORD of Hosts.
The passage does not say what prompted that sentence. Silver and gold would be among the things a smaller house would lack, and what they have instead is timber and their own arms. God never tells them the money is unimportant, and he never suggests they are imagining the gap. He tells them whose the metal is.
Then he says the latter glory of this house will be greater than the former, and he says it to the very men who had looked at it and found it like nothing. The comparison they had been making against themselves is turned round and handed back to them the other way up, and not one thing about their circumstances has changed in the meantime.
And in this place I will provide peace, declares the LORD of Hosts.
The passage goes quiet at the end. After the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land, the nations arriving with their treasure and a house full of glory, the last thing promised is peace, in this place. It is the quietest thing in the whole passage and the one they could have used before the end of the week.
Set what God keeps for himself in these four verses beside what he leaves to them. He shakes the nations and fills the house, he owns the silver and the gold already, and he is the one who will give the peace. The people have been asked for lumber, carried down a hill by hand, which is the only part of any of it their arms were ever going to be able to lift.
How We Know
The promise here answers the complaint that came just before it, point by point, and the book never says so.
Haggai 2:3 has the old men looking at the new house and finding it like nothing next to the first. Verse 9 replies that the latter glory of this house will be greater than the former, using the same comparison in the other direction.
Verse 8 may be answering that. Silver and gold are what the first house had and this one does not, and the reply is that both belong to God already.
Verse 7 says God will fill this house with glory, which locates the promise on the actual foundation the discouraged men are standing next to, rather than on some other building at some other time.
Questions
1 What does God say he is going to shake?
AnswerThe heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land, and then all the nations as well. It is an enormous statement to make to a small group of people on a building site with hand tools and a pile of timber.
2 Which house does God promise to fill with glory?
AnswerThis one. The one in front of them. Not a replacement later on and not a better project once conditions improve. The house they have just been asked to look at is the one he says he will fill.
3 Is there something our family has that you sometimes wish were bigger, newer or better? What is it?
AnswerWhatever gets named, put it beside verse 8. God does not tell these people that silver and gold do not matter, and he does not tell them the difference is imaginary. He tells them who the silver and the gold belong to, which is a different kind of answer than the one they were probably braced for.
4 What is the last thing promised, and how does it sound after everything before it?
AnswerPeace, in this place. Much quieter than shaking the heavens or the arrival of the nations with their treasure. The passage ends small, on the one thing those men could have used that same evening.
What This Means for Us
Everything glorious here is God's to do, and the job handed to the people is timber. That is not a demotion. It is an honest division of the work, and a fair amount of our tiredness comes from trying to do both halves of it, as though the shaking of the nations were somehow waiting on us. So name the piece that is actually ours today, and do that piece. Then put down the part we were never carrying in the first place.
Prayer
Father, we take on work that was never ours and then wonder why we are tired. The silver is yours, the glory is yours, the peace is yours to give. Show us our own small piece today, and let us do it without carrying the rest. Amen.